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VIEWPOINT / Germany should pay as long as even one survivor lives
By Tom Segev
Tags: reparations, Germany, Israel 

Nobody can calculate accurately how much the Germans paid for their crimes against the Jews: By any account, they paid neither too much nor enough.

Most of the money was paid before the euro was introduced. If 60 million Germans for 60 years paid some 12 billion Deutsche mark - it works out that each one paid on average DM 33 per year, or less than one mark a week, between 25 and 50 cents.

In the interim, they became one of the wealthiest countries in the world. They owe their present standing among other things to their wise decision to compensate the Holocaust's survivors. Had they not done so in the early 1950s, they would not have been welcomed so quickly into the family of nations and would also not be so rich today.
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None of this changes the fact that the Germans treated Holocaust survivors more fairly than did the Israel government, especially in recent years. Unfortunately, Israel's attitude toward people in distress is not a worthy example to other countries: not after the Olmert government proposed raising the allowances survivors receive by NIS 83 a month.

However, there is no reason to be impressed by the German government's announcement that it is prepared to enter into negotiations with Israel over additional payment. So long as there is one Jew left on earth who still needs money to end his life in dignity, the Germans should pay, because they alone are to blame. There are some people in Germany who are yelling they've paid enough. They are only demeaning themselves.

At issue is not reopening closed agreements, but human needs that did not arise previously, and people who lived most of their lives behind the Iron Curtain and received no reparations. The Germans should be satisfied if they don't have to give the survivors from the former Soviet Union everything they hadn't paid them during the communist era.

The Germans' willingness to pay more to these survivors too must take into account an important lesson of past agreements: Too many survivors did not get what they deserved, because Israel plucked some of their money for itself. It cannot be allowed to do so again. It was not Israel that was hurt in the Holocaust, but rather several thousand people who now live there. Each has a name, a story, a wound. The money reaches each by direct payment from Germany. It's enough each have a bank account; there is no need for the Bank of Israel.

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  1.   Direct compensation 10:26  |  Esther 15/11/07
  2.   No end to Israeli cheek 10:49  |  RedStarYeast 15/11/07
  3.   This article is satire, right? 10:57  |  Natallie Durson 15/11/07
  4.   Completely agree - but Jonanthan S will have a seizure! 11:10  |  Mr. T 15/11/07
  5.   Take it from the Kibbutzim 11:24  |  Binyamin Dissen 15/11/07
  6.   the victims suffer, so who should pay? 11:26  |  WHO ELSE? 15/11/07
  7.   Either collectively or individually 11:37  |  Axel 15/11/07
  8.   Tom Segev is right and wrong 11:38  |  Jonathan S 15/11/07
  9.   JUST CURIOUS 11:40  |  Cynthia Scott 15/11/07
  10.   What happened to the money? 11:55  |  B. A. 15/11/07
  11.   compensation 12:10  |  ana silva 15/11/07
  12.   @ 1 See the doctor, immediately. 12:12  |  Karl 15/11/07
  13.   Indrajaya - Why do you think Europe has to pay? 12:13  |  SA 15/11/07
  14.   The Germans should pay for every last survivor 12:23  |  Stephen Murray 15/11/07
  15.   it sounds good ! why not ! 12:25  |  Atilla Karagözoğlu 15/11/07
  16.   Jonathan (9), nobody is arguing about that the... 12:27  |  Karl 15/11/07
  17.   Again the German fairy tale about the subs #11 12:33  |  Jonathan S 15/11/07
  18.   Compensation should be the same as paid by 12:34  |  Adel 15/11/07
  19.   Tom Segev, more rights and wrongs 12:35  |  Jonathan S 15/11/07
  20.   # 14, SA ( WE THANK CLINTON) 12:44  |  indrajaya 15/11/07
  21.   #15 #18 disrespect of the victims 12:45  |  kraut 15/11/07
  22.   Germany should build a hospital 12:57  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/11/07
  23.   IF GERMANS CAN LOVE&HONOR THEIR PARENTS THEY CAN SHARE THE BURDEN 12:58  |  Mitch Iginer 15/11/07
  24.   #22 wrong forum 13:11  |  kraut 15/11/07
  25.   AT LAST ONE REPORTER WHO`S GOT 13:16  |  Robert 15/11/07
  26.   Segev you fool... 13:18  |  Ariel 15/11/07
  27.   GERMANY SHOULD PAY REPARATIONS UNTIL 2045 13:22  |  Ben 15/11/07
  28.   # 27, KRAUT 13:27  |  indrajaya 15/11/07
  29.   GERMANY SHOULD PAY UNTIL LAST SURVIVOR 13:42  |  HM 15/11/07
  30.   Why should we pay, if you hate us anyway? 13:57  |  Rolf Herrmann 15/11/07
  31.   Why should I pay? 14:02  |  Peter 15/11/07
  32.   Naive! 14:05  |  Vadim Kramer 15/11/07
  33.   And America should pay 14:09  |  Dav 15/11/07
  34.   #28 14:10  |  kraut 15/11/07
  35.   # 26 - Ariel 14:15  |  Robert 15/11/07
  36.   # 33, DAV 14:26  |  indrajaya 15/11/07
  37.   Those who say "Germany has paid enough to the Jews" 14:30  |  Hastaroth 15/11/07
  38.   Peter 15:30  |  melissa 15/11/07
  39.   Germany should stop paying! 15:30  |  Dutch Dirk 15/11/07
  40.   what about the crimes of the zionist against the Pals 15:37  |  Sam (UK) 15/11/07
  41.   # 17 15:51  |  B. A. 15/11/07
  42.   Stange evaluation of holocaust payments 15:54  |  Cord H. Kaldrack 15/11/07
  43.   And why should Nazis stop paying... 16:24  |  Fred Michaelsberg 15/11/07
  44.   #39 nobody ask you for your opinion #33 16:25  |  kraut 15/11/07
  45.   Palestinian lien 16:31  |  W 15/11/07
  46.   compensation 16:32  |  Rolf 15/11/07
  47.   Paid enough 16:36  |  CF 15/11/07
  48.   edgar 16:38  |  nice dressing 15/11/07
  49.   Re Natallie #3 16:51  |  Esther 15/11/07
  50.   Payments directly to the survivors 16:56  |  Shoshana Thomasson 15/11/07
  51.   partially right.... 17:14  |  Tess 15/11/07
  52.   #43 Fred Michaelsberg 17:15  |  Chris Linthwaite 15/11/07
  53.   THERE`S NO COMPENSATION FOR MURDER! BUT GERMANS ALSO ROBED HIS PE 17:22  |  VOICE)))))))) 15/11/07
  54.   #46, Rolf 17:25  |  Anton 15/11/07
  55.   Hastaroth.... 17:29  |  Tess 15/11/07
  56.   Continual dependence on Germans 17:33  |  Tim 15/11/07
  57.   #50, Shoshana Thomasson 17:36  |  Anton 15/11/07
  58.   #44 Sauerkraut 18:01  |  Dav 15/11/07
  59.   OF COURSE 18:09  |  Nicole 15/11/07
  60.   #54 Nonsens spirit of Versailles 18:10  |  kraut 15/11/07
  61.   colateral victims 18:13  |  scanadu 15/11/07
  62.   Old deal ignored 18:23  |  Gordon 15/11/07
  63.   Kraut #44 18:25  |  Tess 15/11/07
  64.   Pay to the last German 18:51  |  El-Birawi 15/11/07
  65.   Israel needs to pay reparations to the Palesitnians 19:06  |  Forever 15/11/07
  66.   axel you have another problem 19:07  |  verdun 15/11/07
  67.   Stephen Murray: YOU Cannot Be Trusted 19:23  |  CHGODMK 15/11/07
  68.   Germany should atone to the Kurdish people, too 19:25  |  Jonathan S 15/11/07
  69.   Tom Segev on inherited sin 19:59  |  Roger Bannister 15/11/07
  70.   Uuuh, I like to feel Segev`s boot on my chest... 20:26  |  christoph 15/11/07
  71.   A story for you Tom, from a friend 20:30  |  Kenneth Idle 15/11/07
  72.   #65 Forever The Palestinians need to pay reparations to Israel 20:32  |  Jasmine Murphy 15/11/07
  73.   Let me see if I get the reasoning behind this. 20:44  |  Sarah 15/11/07
  74.   Then what is stopping The UK, The US, France, Austria et.c et.c 20:56  |  Singer 15/11/07
  75.   Jasmine Murphy 21:01  |  Esther 15/11/07
  76.   Compensation for survivors 21:04  |  Susan 15/11/07
  77.   From Distomo to Oradour 21:09  |  Jonathan S 15/11/07
  78.   to #13 21:10  |  Susan 15/11/07
  79.   Unfair 21:23  |  Richard Joyce 15/11/07
  80.   #72 Say Jasmine 21:38  |  ballistic 15/11/07
  81.   Robert... 21:46  |  Ariel 15/11/07
  82.   64.Al-Birawi 21:50  |  KUTW